Young Guntur cricketer Ambati Rayudu's decision to hang up his boots shocked the sports fraternity. Many of his fellow cricketers came out in the open to say that India had lost a precious player over petty politics. A few others hailed his decision. Well, that part Ambati Rayudu's decision has become a curious case for sports analysts and cricket enthusiasts. Calling time on your career at such a young age gives rise to some speculation and triggers debate and controversies.

BCCI chief selector who chose to call Mayank Agarwal instead of Rayudu to join the world cup squad has come in for heavy criticism. And then the middle-order batsman's decision to act in haste or anger too is being much talked about on social media.It's worth mentioning here that Virat Kohli himself had remarked that India had found its player to occupy the No.4 Spot in Rayudu.

So then one wonders why Rayudu couldn't find a place for himself in the World Cup Squad to begin with. As reports suggest, calling Mayank to replace Shankar was a joint decision taken by Kohli and Ravi Shastri and had nothing to do with the selectors.

If one were to go by statistics, then Ambati is the fourth highest run-getter for the country since Asia Cup 2018. Between then and the home series against Australia, Ambatifigured in the XI squad in 21 of the 24 matches played by India. Ambati Rayudu scored four fifties and a century in those matches. Ambati Rayudu was also the highest run-getter for India against New Zealand with 190 runs in five innings at 63.33 with a strike rate of 82.25.

If one were to analyse the batsman at No.4 slot in the world cup right now, Rayudu's numbers are far impressive. But it is also true that in the 20 matches he played, Ambati was dismissed below 25 on nine occasions. This, cricket experts say went against him during the team selection.

There is also talk that Ambati Rayudu's Infamous 3D Glasses Tweet led to his snub and his eventual retirement from all formats of the game. One wonders if Rayudu rubbed the selectors on the wrong side with his sly dig in his twitter? We would never know. But what we know for sure is that cricket fans will miss some brilliant shots of a player who held much promise.